DEVELOPMENT OF THAI HERBAL MEDICINE ONTOLOGY OF THAI TRADITIONAL MEDICINE INFORMATION SERVICE OF CHAO PHYA ABHAIBHUBEJHR HOSPITAL

Abstract

This study propose a method for developing a knowledge base of Thai herbal medicine by using ontology techniques and developing its application as a semantic search system. This expected to support the information search of Thai Traditional Medicine Information Service (TTM-IS) of Chao Phya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital. This study used multi-research methodology include 1) Thai herbal medicine knowledge extraction by adopting method triangulation 2) ontology development technique to create concepts and relationships among the concepts in domain knowledge and 3) ontology evaluation for validation and conformability of Thai herbal medicine ontology (THMO) by experts using a questionnaire and a focus group discussion. The resulting application, Thai Herbal Medicine Ontology (THMO), covers concepts derived from Thai herbal medicine as well as folk medicine. THMO consists of 10 major concepts: Formulation, Finished Product Form, Herb Material, Clinical Warning, Taste, Tri-That, Health Problem and Use Method. The validity of THMO was evaluated by eight professional experts— two ontology engineering specialists and six traditional doctors. The experts’ opinions in general agreed with THMO regarding concept identification, relationship identification, correctness and reusability. The application of ontology as prototype of sematic search system was found to be useful in facilitating users query process in finding corrects information on Thai herbal medicine.